Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?

“Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?”

This is something you expect to see in a list titled ‘Things Indian Judges tell rape victims’, right below “the best solution for the victim is to marry the rapist” and “child prostitution is not rape.”

This statement, however, was said by Robin Camp a judge from Alberta, Canada in 2014. Yes, Canada! One of the most progressive, just and peaceful country across the globe. And this just the beginning.

While in court, a 19 year old homeless woman accused Alexander Scott Wagar, a Calgary man, of raping her over a bathroom sink at a house party.

Unlike receiving justice as she expected, things to a wild turn when Camp repeatedly called the victim “the accused” and asked her why she couldn’t keep her knees together. he even went on to ask her “why didn’t you just sink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn’t penetrate you?”

Constantly berating her for not trying to hard enough to scream or escape ( “if you were frightened you could’ve screamed”) from the clutches of Wagar, (who weighs 115 kg) Camp said “Sex is very often a challenge. Sex and pain sometimes go together, that … that’s not necessarily a bad thing”, when the victim claimed that the experience was painful at the rough hand of the accused.

When Crown prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee objected for the inappropriate and insensitive remarks the judge made, he retorted by saying “I hope you don’t live too long, Ms. Mograbee” and went on to dismiss the crime as a “misbehaviour”, after which he advised Wagar on how to avoid such situations in the future.

“You’ve got to be really sure that she’s saying yes… so remind yourself every time that you get involved with a girl from now on and tell your friends, okay?”

His comments came back to haunt him when recently Alberta’s Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the acquittal and ordered a new trial, Justice Camp’s offensive comments were made public, following which the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) was flooded with complaints and petitions to sack the judge.

Even while investigations were being made about his comments on Canada’s Rape Shield Law, Camp was promoted to a Federal Judge, bringing about another round of outrage among activists and netizens calling for his removal.

CJC has finally agreed to hold another hearing in August, looking into his insensitive behaviour during the 2014 trial and other five allegations made against him. A panel of five judges will decide if Camp should remain on the bench of Federal Court Judges of the Federal Court of Ottawa.

Meanwhile, Camp is desperatley trying to keep his job and filed his own submission to CJC which claims that he was sorry for his behaviour and that the 2014 episode has made him a better judge and a better person.

It is safe to say that Robin Camp, a Canadian judge, has raised the bar way too much and puts Aaron Perskey and many Indian judges to shame.

@Independent Why couldn’t his mother?

— PF (@PeterFearns) July 6, 2016

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